First “Smart” Car Arrives in New York

The eight-and-a-half foot long, 1,800 pound smart fortwo has arrived in the US, with the first American owner taking delivery here in New York. As it happens, he’s a friend of the folks at car blog Jalopnik, who took it for a drive. Here’s some of what they had to say.

We do need to change the way we think about the Smart. It is safe. Bookended by crumple zones, a steel roll cage surrounds the occupants.

It feels safe, too. The size defines the driving experience, but not in the way you might expect. Rather than feeling intimidated in traffic, you feel empowered. Gone is the need to take responsibility for an acre of SUV on a crowded road. Present is the freedom to move down that crowded road as you see fit. Congested urban streets and crowded highways stop feeling claustrophobic and start feeling easy.

It’s not Green. The problem is, the Smart isn’t that smart. The 1-liter, 70bhp engine has to work hard, so it only averages about 38mpg. Less if you drive fast.

So the Smart is a more complete, practical car than most people assume it to be – but that’s also its biggest problem. It’ll still get caught in traffic jams. Look at the Smart as a practical car that’s easier to use in an urban environment than anything else, and you’ll be happy. Look at it as fundamentally altering the way Americans think about transportation though, and you’ll be disappointed.

Dunno — if everyone had one of these, there’d be twice as many parked at curbside and twice as much traffic!

I think they’re cute

But if every current car owner traded theirs in for one of these, we’d be able to reclaim 50% of our street space and parking lots!

Larry Littlefield

There was a great document on the nation’s economy put out by the federal Office of Technology Assessment 20 years ago. It has a whole analysis of the structure of the economy, from the consumption side back to the production side. One problem — the auto companies were among the technical advisors.

So what was their solution to the problem of energy (remember, this was close enough to the 1970s that they admitted there as such a thing?). People don’t own enough cars. Instead of one or two, people need five or six. Going somewhere alone? Use a Smart Car and save gas. You need a personal truck for when you need to move things, and a large sedan for when the whole family travels together.

Sort of ruined the whole book for me.

vnm

Upstate Manhattan, “first American owner” seems correct if the person you saw is from British Columbia

ben

if the car went for 2,000 bucks like india’s quest. I am not sure better, yet car sharing could take off.

Chris Loos

Smart Car vs. concrete barrier, courtesy Top Gear:

E

The guys at jalopniks say the Smart Car is “not gay.” What the heck is that supposed to mean?

Oxymoron. Exactly. Let’s support Komanoff and Kheel and make transit fare-free. The private auto is not only obsolete, it is a threat to all life on earth.

not even gay

E@10:17, I may have some insight into your semantic question. I drove a couple thousand miles down south last summer with a male friend in a Scion xA, and let me tell you, a Scion xA is the automotive equivalent of interesting eyeglasses. It set off ‘gaydar’ all over the place, especially Alabama.

anon

What is the difference between tsmart car and the nano that Tata just unveiled in India?

Brad Aaron

About $16,000, anon.

Josh

Is that actual 38 mpg, or fake on-paper-only 38 mpg? Because actual 38 mpg is better than most cars.

Sphekko

Not that impressed. I’m pretty sure the Euro version is way more efficient. Why they didn’t allow it here years ago blows my mind. At any rate, doesn’t make much sense to have a car of any kind in New York, i say band ’em from all of Manhattan!

Propes

The diesels in Europe were (and are) much more efficient (and got real-world 60+ MPG), but they flunk EPA emissions and safety testing. Those that were brought into the US and converted to meet standards cost upwards of $30,000 (the top model with everything is under $20k, and the base starts at $11k).

From my reading of people who already have the US model, real world MPG seems to hover around 38-41 with occasional spikes above and below; but it’s a very small sample size so far.

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

State spending on infrastructure to support exurban McMansions drains people and resources from urban centers — and costs taxpayers a bundle. Photo: highflyingknight12/Flickr With Albany’s legislative session drawing to a close, the state legislature is considering several initiatives to promote sustainable transportation and livable communities in New York state. One of those initiatives is the […]

This is the first article in a five-part series by Streetsblog publisher and LimeWire founder Mark Gorton: Traffic is a crushing problem that oppresses our city, yet many people who drive into New York each day do not have a good alternative. I’m an engineer by training and the traffic flow problems facing large cities […]

The Buffalo area has tripled in size even while its population has stayed flat. Will New York’s new smart growth law help? Graphic via Joe the Planner. New York’s smart growth legislation is about to become law, so it’s worth looking at precisely how much it will do. Smart growth laws from around the country […]

Here is the second installment of Streetsblog publisher and LimeWire founder Mark Gorton’s essay, "Smart Para-Transit: A New Vision for Urban Transportation." Part 1 is here and you can also download the complete pamphlet. Advances in information and communications technology offer the possibility of optimizing the performance of our existing road network in ways that […]

Yesterday, we published part one of my interview with Peter Norton, a historian at the University of Virginia and the author of Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City. We talked about whether the push for infrastructure investment is always code for increasing car capacity, and how the Vision Zero campaign […]

We’ve all seen the graphs: Driving and car ownership have passed their peak in America, while transit ridership and biking are on the rise. On the ground, however, city buses still move at a crawl, bogged down in traffic. Most streets remain too dangerous for most people to feel comfortable biking on them. And the […]